


Psychic Saiyan

by rubywings91



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Slight AU (Bardock survives), Will add characters once they enter the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-04-14 08:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14132589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubywings91/pseuds/rubywings91
Summary: Summary: This is a what if AU where Bardock survives because he does not make it back to Planet Vegeta before it is destroyed. He decides to find his son but because he did not make it back, he doesn't know where find him. Goku and Bardock meet up in the time gap between the Baba Saga and the Second World Martial Arts Tournament.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Dragon Ball Franchise or its characters. That would be an interesting feat, considering that the show started before I was born and the manga came before that. Furthermore, their original forms exist in a language I do not understand.
> 
> I have more to say in relation to this story but have placed it at the bottom of the chapter, as I know some readers don't like having a ton of reading material before their chapter. Still, I highly recommend that readers look at what I have to say there, especially for this particular chapter. That is where I will try to keep the majority of my extra content in the future. Please enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bardock doesn't make it back to Planet Vegeta in time to warn his people of Frieza's betrayal

The image of Planet Vegeta turning into a ball of fire and the sound of Frieza's laughter echoed through Bardocks mind, startling him awake. Coming to, he found himself under the bodies of his teammates.  He pushed their corpses off so that he could stand, trying to fend off the tight knot in his chest as he felt the weight of their cooling corpses shift and heard the rustle of their lifeless forms. 

Dodoria was long gone. It was a good thing he was too sloppy to make sure the job was done.  Otherwise, Bardock truly would have been killed. His own team would never have been so careless. They always gave the planets they'd cleared a circle or two and fired extra shots at the supposedly dead bodies of strong enemies in order to be confident that the deed was done, even if the scouters picked up nothing. As far as Bardock was concerned, this stood as further proof that they were not 'low level' but the absolute best, proving more thorough than even one of Frieza's personal 'yes' men.

How long had he been out anyway? He had to get to Planet Vegeta before Frieza!  He had to warn everyone so that they could fight back against him.  Together, his people could stop Frieza.  They would destroy him for his treachery and no one would ever try to mess with the Saiyans ever again!  All would quake at the merest mention of them.

He cast one last look at his team; they’d had his back so many times over the years and had even protected him one last time in death.  Bardock felt a lump in his throat at the thought that not only had he arrived too late to save them but that he couldn’t even stick around long enough to give them a proper burial on the planet where they had fallen.

They deserved better from him, but he had to get home and warn the others.

With one last glance, Bardock flew off toward his pod. The moment he had it open, he crawled in and punched in the coordinates for home with fingers that were slippery with sweat and blood. The door sealed shut and the tiny ship took off. He denied himself the option of using the sleeping gas or the emergency medical support system for the travel despite his current condition, knowing that either would render him unconscious and he might not wake up in time to warn his people before Frieza struck.

Bardock turned on the radio and switched it to the frequency used by Frieza's higher ranking forces. It was something that had taken him years of fiddling with the system to get. Luckily, he'd had the time to kill during many trips in the pod and the resulting benefits had proven well worth the effort. He'd used it to listen to radio chatter about planets, so that he could make better selections for his team when they weren't given specific assignments. He was the only one who had the capacity to listen in on the channel. He had kept it a secret from his team so they would not share the blame if he was ever caught.

As Bardock adjusted the system, he wondered; if he and his team had left for Meat together would he have heard Dodoria and his men discussing their plans? Would the others still be alive? No, probably not…if they'd caught wind of a trap, they would have charged across Planet Meat to challenge Dodoria and his men head on and probably have been quickly dispensed of by the spiky terror…maybe with the addition of torture, so Dodoria could inform Frieza of how they had found out…

Would that additional time be enough for Dodoria to discover Bardock's new powers? A shiver, either from revulsion or fear, he wasn’t sure which, ran down his back. After all, Frieza had wanted Kanassa for that reason in the first place. What would he do if he discovered a Saiyan had gotten it? The sudden image of him, trapped in a room to grow old and decrepit without ever fighting again crossed his mind and he struggled with the suddenly overwhelming urge to puke right there in the cockpit.

Bardock forced the thoughts from his mind; this was not the time for him to dwell on such things. What's done was done. As a warrior, he had learned the particularly hard truth that there was no point on dwelling on what was and what could have been from a young age. Now he had to focus on the future.

So, he would have to rely on the signal he'd hacked so long ago and work with what he could get from it. The moment he tuned in, the device sprang to life, full of activity which poured over into the speakers as chatter about planetary attacks by Frieza's elites upon Saiyans who were out on assignments. Saiyan’s clearing planets were shot down the moment they completed their own missions. Outposts were being torn asunder, entire spaceports blown into the next dimension to kill individuals who were in the process selling cleared planets to interested buyers. He growled in frustration, unable to do anything but listen.

Bardock was so tired. It was the blood loss, he knew. And now that the adrenaline rush had passed, he was scared that if he slipped into a sleep he'd never wake up in time... maybe not at all. Still, his eyelids continued to grow heavy, even as he listened to the grisly audio of Frieza's soldiers wiping out his people.

Then Cui's voice came through, talking about how a team of kids sent to Desset were dead at the hands of the natives.   Bardock’s body immediately rushed with blood-pounding anger. He released a roar of fury as he punched the radio system, gutting the machinery as he wished he could do to the purple worm of a soldier.

That was Raditz's mission. His first ever.

His team and now his firstborn, Bardock was losing everyone.

Suddenly, Bardock was jarred from his thoughts as he saw a small, silvery dot pass by in the distance, only visible due to the light from a nearby star glinting off of it. He wouldn't have noticed it except for a feeling, almost like a pull. He was familiar with it because it was the same one he'd experienced first in the rejuvenation chamber and then again as he was running past his youngest son in the medical facility, causing him to stop and look at the boy.

He'd barely had time to recognize this before he was assaulted by a new set of visions. This time, he got flashes of the boy at different ages, starting somewhere probably around his first decade and running through into his second, although he was still on the thin side at the end, meaning he was probably still waiting for the final fill-in that would come in his mid-twenties. What he saw was strange; although his son was clearly a warrior, he was not a normal Saiyan one.

He found himself back in his capsule as the connection faded again, left with nothing but the sound of his own ragged breath filling the cockpit. His face felt slick with blood, sweat and, who knows, maybe even a few tears.

Less than five minutes later, he saw an explosion in the distance, a glowing sphere from which sparkling debris shot out from like glitter; a sight both beautiful and terrible to behold. There was only one celestial body of any great size in that direction that would be close enough to see. Planet Vegeta… he was too late.

For a few minutes, he was unable to do anything but stare at the glowing, superheated mass that used to be his home world. He had been part of a baby boom that was started so that they could claim that world as their own. 

He’d spent his childhood training up attending tournaments with the other children and taking beatings from the adults,  so that he would be strong enough when the time came.

Of course, the Great Tuffle War still went on for the better part of a decade.  That was to be expected, seeing as the Tuffles had both technology and numbers.  If the Saiyans hadn’t taken the vast swath of croplands they had in the first battle, the uprising would have only lasted a week or two.  The Saiyans would have been starved into submission as they were cut off from the food supply Tuffles, who usually gave it to them in exchange for ores and rock the Saiyans dug up, an arrangement that was slavery in all but title. 

And oh, what a battle it had been.  His first true battle and a taste of the days to come. Still, it was a hard war and the Tuffles proved to be good foes.  The Saiyans only won by the light of the full moon, the first one where there water supply hadn’t been pumped with drugs by the “gentle, peaceful” Tuffles.

It had been so wonderful the following morning to stand on a planet that was finally theirs and begin to spread their reach outward to the stars once again for the first time in generations.

Now, that was all gone in a flash, leaving nothing but a ball of molten rock, shooting sparks into the void. He watched it fade from an almost blinding white to a golden yellow and finally to a red-hot coal before it crossed his mind that he had to get out of there before Frieza or his goons spotted his ship, but where to?

He tried to think, struggling to get past the image of the burning planet that was now freshly branded into his mind.   He closed his eyes and with a monumental effort, focused his thoughts.  It had to be somewhere Frieza either didn't know about or didn't care about, but near enough that he wouldn't bleed out getting there.

Finally, Bardock had an idea. He punched in a set of coordinates.

It was no secret that Saiyans had voracious appetites. Even if they didn't actively try to exterminate life on the planets they came to, too many of his people in one place could strip a thriving planet bare, especially if they were there for long periods of time.

Because of this, the Saiyans had multiple planets for themselves to act as giant larders. Some originally trade partners with the Tuffles that had been supplying their food in the first place and others added on after in response to the growing Saiyan population as they started “exploring” the universe.  The goal was to build a big enough system of them that they could continually harvest the planets for centuries without depleting their food supply.

They were also incredibly secretive about these worlds. If something happened to them, the Saiyan population could potentially have been starved out. Some would have escaped to other worlds but many would have been too stubborn. Desperate, hungry Saiyans made horrible company, even for other members of their own species.

Still, most of their people didn't know where these actually were. They were too busy doing their job and as long as the few workers tasked with keeping the food flowing performed their own duties well enough, there was no need to be concerned. But, as important as the food was, few Saiyans wanted to waste their time with the tedious work of growing the supply, herding animals and tending fields, when there were fights to be had and planets to clear. They’d done enough labor under the Tuffles.  Bardock still ground his teeth when he recalled days digging up and carrying iron ore in hopes of meeting the recently raised quota.  Still, better than the groups who got coal.  It was much easier to leave a couple planets with civilizations intact and transport groups from these places to other planets of interest that lacked the potential workforce.

His mate, Gine, was one of those Sayians who acted as a "liaison" with their feeder civilizations. She may not have racked up the planetary apocalypse toll, like most of their people, but she had the pick of the best foods. She was probably a major reason he and his team grew in level so fast. She knew exactly what to give them to keep them as healthy as the elites.  She had full access to that food, and she'd known where the planets they came from were located.

Although neither he nor his team had ever visited these planets, he had managed to convince Gine to tell him their locations. He'd wanted to know just in case his team needed a safe haven or a place to heal and couldn't make the trip all the way back to one of Frieza's facilities. If they had survived the attack from Dodoria and Planet Vegeta hadn't been at risk, it was probably where he would have had them lay low.

Now he typed in a set of coordinates for one of these planets. Maybe some of the other Saiyans were still alive out there, out on food-collecting duty. Perhaps even Gine herself. He sighed and shook his head, knowing better. She would have been off-duty for a few more weeks, being instructed to take nutrient restoratives after giving birth to Kakarot.   Saiyans took their health very seriously and having offspring had a major impact on the women who carried them. Bardock had heard that the scientists they'd been assigned by the cold empire had been requesting funding in order to set up artificial growth chambers to get around this problem, along with the time wasted carrying the offspring to term but they didn't have access to that yet. She would have been in one of the medical facilities on Planet Vegeta when Frieza blew it up.

Bardock clenched his fists again and growled at the thought.  It felt like he had lost yet another member of his team.   And now she was gone, too.  Just like all the others.

He sighed, unable to take any more of this.  It was just all too much for him as the rays from the dying planet lit the inside of the pod as red as his blood.

He activated the hibernation state and the emergency life support. He had to slow the deterioration of his health over the few days it would take to get to the planet. As he activated them and slipped into sleep, he hoped that he wouldn't bleed out or get an infection before he got there.

Hopefully, he'd wake up when the time came, rather than slip into a coma having no certainty of their being anyone interested in reviving him at the end of his journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my Dragon Ball exposure: I grew up on the DBZ English Dub and have just watched all of Dragon Ball (Eng Dub) for the first time and am starting to watch DBZ again for the first time in about a decade. I expect to watch it all as well as the other DB series and have started rewatching it in English Subbing as well. So, while the English Dub will probably take priority, I will take the original content into account and will make note of it as I go (generally at the end of Chapters). One important example right now has to do with my plans for Bardock based off of "Bardock: Father of Goku." I plan on making his personality more akin to that of what I saw in the English Subbed version than the English Dubbed one. That means he was in no way repentant for the destruction he caused to other worlds and was more interested in Kakarot eventually taking vengeance for Planet Vegeta than on ending Frieza's tyranny. For powers and effects, I will stick with the English Dubbed version, where he can see both the future and into minds and where it pours over into his son somewhat (for reasons of possible future plot points, possible plot hole filling and shameless shortcut making uses). I am going to assume that in the case of Goku that it either weakened with time or was damaged when he hit his head but he still has some minor subconscious remains.
> 
> I have yet to see any Dragon Ball GT, which I will wait to see before considering in-depth application, as I am aware many fans don't like it and refuse to consider it canon. All I have seen of Dragon Ball Super are the movies "Battle of the Gods" and "Resurrection F." I will try to remain as true to the source material as I can but if I make a major mistake, please feel free to point it out.
> 
> I also like to headcanon characters in movies to exist/ have existed in the main universe but don't make it relevant to the Z fighters. For example, perhaps Cooler heard about some stuff going down in a faraway Galaxy that could eventually be a threat in the cold empire and comes across a much younger, weaker Broly and they take each other out long before the epic fight between Goku and Frieza. So, such characters may or may not arise in my story.
> 
> I am not familiar with any of the games and have little interest in becoming so. Therefore, there will probably be no content from the games.
> 
> I will occasionally come across exceptions and other content to my own rules. At such points, I will inform my audience (again at the bottom). For instance, I am applying "Dragon Ball Zero," to this story. I am also aware of "Episode of Bardock," but will not count it beyond using it as a way to further assess Bardock's character (his lines about not being good with kids and that he didn't really care what happened to the people of the town who saved him but changed his mind only once he had developed personal attachments are two important things. A third thing you may have noticed is the Tuffles enslaving Saiyans part, which I know came from GT but liked too much when researching to pass up in building up the Saiyan background. 
> 
> Also, I am sure you noticed that I made no references to Bardock's final visions where he sees that Goku is destined to face Frieza. Although I admit that it was originally an accident, I decided to stick with it under the assumption that Bardock has more important visions as he gets into more perilous situations, which does seem to be the case in the episode. I will probably write him discovering this in a later chapter but for now, his intentions to find his son will be more personal reasons.
> 
> If anyone feels that Bardock only seeing Gine as being no more important than the rest of his team seems off, I am running under the assumption that most Saiyans are not usually loyal to a single mate for life but still only couple with people they deeply respect. It seems like something that they would do. I might or might not write Raditz as being the son of a different woman but that the Saiyans don’t really care if they are siblings through one or both parents and don’t much care for such technicalities when discussing family. 
> 
> Thank you for devoting your time and attention to checking out this piece to see if, out of all the pieces here, it is one worth reading. I hope that you enjoyed my first chapter and that the rest of the story continues to be an enjoyable read.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bardock recovers from his physical injuries

"You have reached your destination," an automated voice stated.

Bardock woke up shivering, teeth clattering together. Why was it so cold? Was the pod having a temperature malfunction? Opening his eyes, everything was in impossibly sharp focus, from the buttons and lights inside the cockpit to the purplish glowing reflection off of the planet out the window; all of it was so bright that it seemed to stab into his eyes. His head was pounding away. What was going on?

Soon, Bardock could hear the sound of the pod entering the atmosphere, starting out as a quiet rumble but growing to a loud roar that made his head thrum as it exacerbated his headache. This lasted for just over a minute before the pod finally crashed into the ground with a shudder and a jolt from the impact.

The pod opened up and Bardock immediately crawled out.  He shakily got to his feet to find himself standing in the crater left by his impact.  He felt a cool breeze blowing across his sweaty skin, causing him to shiver.

Bardock felt a sense of urgency but his mind was too foggy to say exactly why.  He forced himself to focus on thoughts that seemed to slip from his awareness like water through his fingers.   But it was important that he remember.  Even in his addled state, he knew that something important had happened or maybe would happen.  So he fought to recall.

He had to tell the others…something. Danger. What danger? Bardock stood there, momentarily drawing a blank as he shivered from the cold and his injuries stinging. Frieza, he recalled. Frieza was coming to destroy Planet Vegeta, to kill the Saiyans.

He had to warn them.

Bardock tried to fly, only to collapse back into the crater his pod had created. The Saiyan landed on his feet only to have them give out beneath him.  He attempted to get back up but found he couldn’t find the strength to do more than rise into a kneeling position.  

Suddenly, he was assailed by the image of an exploding planet. Was it a vision? A memory? He couldn't tell. He couldn't think. Why was he so cold? He continued to stand on unsteady legs as the world spun around him; unable to stop shivering before his knees buckled and he collapsed again; blacking out.

For a while after that, Bardock was unsure of how much of his experience was real, how much were fever-induced hallucinations, and how much was something else. At first, he had visions alternating between his pod and some strange vehicle, of labs familiar and not, voices above him, doctors telling him to stay down, him sitting with his teammates around a campfire...

Bardock blinked and the campfire transformed into a blazing inferno. He was surrounded by burning buildings. At the sound of a ki blast, he spun and looked up toward the sky. Above him floated a saiyan man with long bushy hair. He looked like a fully grown version of Raditz …no, it was Raditz but much older, flying with an older version of Prince Vegeta and his bodyguard, Nappa.

A piece of rubble fell from one of the buildings, but before it finished its descent the scene had changed again. Now Bardock was in a cavern. He could hear splashes as chips fell from the ceiling above and crashed into the water below, sounding almost like rain on water and intensified by the echoing quality of the space he was in. Before him, was Kakarot as a child, eating a tentacle off of some strange creature while the walls and ceiling cracked and groaned as if they could buckle in on him at any moment.

Images of both his sons - different as day and night, passed before him - he saw Raditz, along with the other two Saiyans, tortured by Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria. Then he’d be tearing into undersized rations as those other two Saiyans gave him flack for being a cowardly, third class weakling and he never retorted in any way. There were also many of Kakarot as a child.  Talking to orange balls and participating in tournaments with strange creatures, swimming in an ocean full of life, releasing mist from a gourd to grab people and closing a door by pulling a sword. There were floating palaces and a giant green serpent beneath a black sky. While Raditz's appearances seemed bleak, he could at least make sense of them. Everything he saw with Kakarot seemed too strange to comprehend.

Bardock moaned and cracked his eyes open to find himself suspended in a healing chamber. He tried to remember what had happened to cause him to end up here. Judging from the Zenkai boost he'd received, it must have been one hell of a fight.

As he stirred, the fluid began draining out of the chamber. He carefully pulled off his breathing apparatus and realized he was being watched through the glass. Bardock attempted to categorize the beings standing before him. They had the extremely common sapien build shared with Saiyans and several other species all over the known universe, although these creatures appeared to be more on the frail side of the spectrum, with short, slim builds.  On their faces and the parts of their arms and legs not covered by lab coats, Bardock could see they had tawny colored skin that was decorated with bronze stripes, judging by the parts of their arms and legs that weren’t covered by lab coats, along with their faces. Their eyes were shades of orange and amber and their hair as bronze as their stripes.

... With one exception. There was a youth with that was far more muscular than his counterparts. He had dark hair and eyes as well as a tail that was striped with Saiyan brown and the bronze of his people's own hair.  To Bardock's eye, he looked like a boy in the midst of his largest growth spurt, but he knew that other species matured at a different rate compared to Saiyans. The boy couldn't be two Vegetan years old yet, considering that they had been exploring the universe for just short of that time period.

"Half-breed," Bardock stated disgustedly as the glass lifted away and he stepped out of the healing tank to tower over his audience. Saiyans were not very tolerant of their hybrids.  The filthy blooded creatures were generally weak and stunted compared to full-bloods but sometimes had their uses…like helping control people that the Sayians just wanted to be subjugated rather than annihilated.

"Welcome to Planet Torwel. My name is Reed." The youth didn't seem deterred by his reaction. He actually drew himself taller and said, "I'm the one who retrieved you and brought you here when you crashed. Since there aren’t currently any pure-blooded saiyans and I'm level 300, I was declared strong enough to hold the high rank here." It was an impressive growth rate for a hybrid, about par with the average for a saiyan child of a similar age. The boy looked up expectantly, as if expecting an acknowledgment for his level.

Bardock rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, not bad, but you're really the best this world has?"

"We weren't kept by you or the Tuffles before you for our strength, just for our food productivity."

Bardock sighed. For a lot of these planets, the arrival of the Saiyans had been essentially cutting out the middleman. They had been used to grow a lot of food that would last in storage for long periods of time. Tuffles kept the high-quality goods in their fields at home, allowing them to brag about having unique foods to add to their lavish lifestyle while these outside rations were kept for backup and for feeding their Saiyan labor force. That backup supply had been a major part of the reason that the Tuffles had been able to hold out so long, even after the Saiyans had started targeting supply ships. The Tuffles had a lot of food stored up and they didn't need to eat much, so they were ready for the siege on their cities.

Then he recalled where he was and why he'd come here. He remembered what exactly had happened to him. To planet Vegeta. He felt a wave of horror come over him but the only outward sign he gave was a frown as he looked around and asked, "So, there aren't any other Saiyans here?"

"No, if so we would have had them here for you. I'm currently breaking a dozen rules by standing in the same room as an unauthorized Warrior Class Saiyan." A mischievous smirk crossed Reed’s face as he said this.

"And why aren’t there any here right now?  Shouldn’t someone be here to make sure productivity stays up?"

"This was supposed to be our break in the cycle."

"You get breaks?"

"We need to replenish our soil and animal populations so that we don't run out of food. Usually, we get a couple periods for restoration every-"

"Thanks, but I don't need an in-depth lesson about growing food. I'm just surprised no one would be here to make sure everyone stays in line,"

"What do you think kids like me are here for? You guys knew that we were enough to keep everything on track. So, when it came to you hanging out on a peacefully submissive planet or leaving someone else to keep order on it, you chose us." A hopeful edge leaked into Reed’s proud tone as he added, "and we've been working to get stronger so that when our Saiyan relatives came back, we could ask if we'd become strong enough to be worthy of a visit from some of our half-siblings for a tournament. We wouldn't even mind if it's the younger kids."

Bardock felt his frown deepen as his heart lurched. There were probably more hybrids here than there were pureblooded children left in the whole universe...were prince Vegeta and Kakarot the last two? Would the five-year-old Prince even still be alive or did Frieza celebrate blowing up his world by terminating the royal line in a splash of red? Or a flash of light and the smell of singed flesh?

Bardock tried to push the sickening images out of his mind.  He had no love for the Saiyan caste system that had marked people by birth rather than strength but the royal family’s rule went all the way back to when their people were on Sadala.  The idea of it ending like that was terrible beyond words.

He looked at the boy before him and suspected that these half-breeds wouldn't last long. He was sure that Frieza would eventually find this world. Even if he spared it and the majority of its inhabitants to grow food to feed his army, the half-Saiyans would be killed.

Bardock frowned. No one was here, so what should he do now? How could he even be sure that anyone besides himself survived?

Only one certain answer came to him: Kakarot. The child was destined to grow up, he'd seen that. Still, considering his abysmal power level and the way he seemed to act in Bardock’s visions, was there even any point in pursuing him?

Yes, actually, there was. Kakarot had been sent to that planet to clear it out for Frieza's forces. Eventually, they would come to collect. If his son was still there his fate would be left in their hands. And Bardock would be damned if he'd let that monster hold power over one more Saiyan, especially his son, power level be damned! It would not happen as long as Bardock drew breath!

He recalled the fever dreams of his eldest and was almost thankful for his end. He didn't like to imagine one of his own living such a life- that of an ill-treated, overworked slave.

Looking up, Bardock realized that all but the half-breed had gathered to the back of the room. Even the boy, who hadn't moved a muscle, had gone a few shades whiter. Bardock realized he must have growled or something as he thought about his son's possible fate.

"It's not you. I was thinking about someone else." Then, recalling what the boy had been asking about, he added, "But I wouldn't get your hopes up, kid. I don't think we'll be having any tournaments anytime soon."

Raditz's team had just won such a tournament mere days ago, earning the right to be the first group of their age level to go on a mission, at least for their class. If Frieza hadn't decided to commit this genocide, they might have been planning out a mission as father and son at that very moment. It would have been a celebration of the boy's achievement and the most time they would have ever gotten to spend together.

Bardock sighed and rubbed hand on the back of his head. He had run it halfway through his hair before his hand froze. "Where is my gear? I was wearing a bandanna when I came here. Where is it?"

"A bandanna?" Reed asked.

"Yes.  It's red with the blood of one of my teammates. Now, where is it?"

Reed looked over his shoulder and one of the lab men ran off before he came back with a red piece of cloth. Bardock took it.

Despite having dried, the strip was still as red as when he'd first soaked it.

White cloth was a common piece of attire that many Saiyans carried with them.  Often, fallen warriors had to be left behind.  Some still wanted a way to remain with their teammates even after death.  The act of soaking their blood in cloth for others to wear in their memory after they had fallen was a time-honored tradition that went back to the early days of their race.

More recently, they had found a way to treat such materials so that they would both absorb the blood well and hold the color.  They were increadibly expensive.

When Tomat presented one as a gift to their team, everyone understood how large a gesture it was.  He had probably passed up on several meals to get it. 

When he had offered it to Bardock to carry, since he was the leader, he had declined and insisted Tomat carry it himself, since he had gone through so much trouble to get it for them, he should bear the honor of carrying the band of cloth with him, be it white or red.

Tomat had stated that he would accept only on the condition that, if he fall, Bardock would take on the task of carrying it afterward. Bardock had agreed to the terms, hoping it wouldn’t come to that any time soon but knowing it was always a possibility.

For ages, it had blazed white against his arm, serving as an uplifting reminder that, despite all of the close calls and near misses, their team had never actually lost anyone.

Now it was red with Toma’s own blood.  Bardock wished he’d had time to add some of the other’s blood to it, too.  That’s what it had been for, after all but now, this was all he had left of any of them…

 This tiny scrap of stained cloth now represented his failure to not only protect his team but all of his people. It wasn't enough, not even close, but it was all he had. He sighed but did nothing more that might give away his true emotions before these people as he lifted it up and tied it around his head.

Once finished, he looked back at Reed and asked, "How long have I been here?"

"A few days. You took a real beating. You jumped from ten to nearly twelve thousand."

"Twelve?" Bardock asked, surprised. That was definitely stronger than King Vegeta. He couldn't stop himself from smiling proudly at the thought. He'd noticed that the boosts had been increasing over time but a two thousand level jump…it had been close, so close. And now he was stronger than ever.

Not strong enough, though.

To Frieza and his elites, Bardock would still look like a joke.

In fact, Bardock wondered how Frieza's men hadn't found him yet. His pod had a tracker in it, he was sure. Frieza's men recycled those things when soldiers fell. Sure, they'd have to take the time to dig up the serial number for his ship's system, but surely they should have retrieved it by now.

Maybe Frieza was too busy scrambling to cover up the slaughter of the Saiyans to realize that Planet Meat was one pod short? But still, it would have taken days to get here plus the time in the regen tank. Surely with the extra time, Frieza's men would have gotten to it by now.

Bardock looked up and asked, "Are you sure that I'm the only person who's showed up?"

The boy rolled his eyes, as if he'd heard the question many times before. "We had an expert remove the tracker and launch it back into space so no one could detect that you landed here for more than a few minutes."

Bardock chose to ignore the brat's attitude. "Your people can do that?"

"Just in case you lot forgot to do it before any of you left Planet Vegeta…or someone came here when they shouldn't. It would be hard to hide a planet your people visit so much if we couldn't handle your trackers."

Listening to him talk so nonchalantly about it, Bardock realized these people had no idea of what had happened back home. As far as they knew, everything was business as usual and he was just a desperate person returning from a mission gone sour and taking advantage of their facilities. 

The fact that the Saiyans had put such protocols in place to actively keep these planets hidden from Frieza also suggested that at least someone of rank had suspected that the lizard might one day turn on them them for a long time.

Certainly well before Bardock, who’d had little suspicion of the monster’s betrayal until Tomat had told him as he lay dying, surrounded by their teammates’ cooling corpses.

It was a pity that the work put into hiding this well stocked little world had proven to be a nearly useless gesture, managing to save a total of one member of their entire race.

And maybe not even that much, Bardock suddenly realized with a growing sense of horror.  "Where'd you send it?"

"Back to Planet Vegeta, since in your condition, you probably should have been heading there anyway. One of the experts there probably retrieved it. Whether or not they bring it up with your superiors is beyond our control. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll let it slide. It would be a pity if we went through all of this trouble to save you for them to undo our work."

"You sent it to Planet Vegeta?" The only people there now were whoever Frieza might have left behind to nail any Saiyans coming back home after distant missions, having missed the news of the destruction of their world due to pod hibernation. The moment the pod's tracker came through they would not only know that he had survived but also what direction to go in order to find him.

Bardock mentally cursed but didn't let his anger show on his face or in his voice. He didn't want to give these people a clue of what was really happening, especially while he didn't know where his pod was. He could see someone trying to hijack it to escape and leaving him here to die. He didn't plan on risking that. So he bit his tongue, letting his escort believe that he was just annoyed at the idea of getting disciplined.

"I have to get going; before I get into any more trouble."

"I'll take you to your ship right now if you want. We'll give you some ration bars, since you're probably hungry. We've got plenty for guests like as you."

Bardock replied with a single nod.

The boy looked at the others and asked, "Can one of you call up someone to get the food brought directly to the ship?" Despite his friendly tone, the others jumped to it.

The boy smiled up at Bardock and said, "Come on, I'll take you to the ship,"

"Good."

As the boy took Bardock down the hall, he chattered on about how the hybrids here had been training as he bounced from wall to wall and occasionally hovered as they walked forward. Bardock began to feel anxious as the child kept on, the boisterousness leaving him uncomfortable. This boy and the other children on the feeder worlds were probably the majority of what remained of their proud race and Frieza would soon remove them.

Bardock's thoughts hovered uncomfortably on that fact. These were only hybrids, but Frieza would still see them as a threat. If all the others were like this boy, they'd want a fight. If Bardock wanted to stand against his people's ex-employer any way he could, he could start by reducing the completeness of his victory over the Saiyan race right here.

But with hybrid brats? What difference could they really make? They were children raised on a slave planet meant to grow food. They were little more than higher-ranking slaves themselves and had shown no interest in rebelling against their relatives, who showed up only to collect food and probably occasionally fried people the brats cared about while they were there.

Bardock was so lost in thought that he hadn’t realized he’d stopped until Reed asked, "What's wrong?"

Bardock looked at the energetic child who'd been chattering about training and was hoping for a tournament that could never be. Seeing his curious look, Bardock came to a decision.

"Kid, I'm sure that with your knowledge of our ships, your people have some illegal rigs set up."

Reed suddenly took up a defensive stance and stated, "That would be grounds for widespread executions, sir." All the joy had left his voice and he looked like he might actually jump to fight Bardock. Maybe these brats weren't as submissive as he thought.

Bardock sure hoped that was the case.

He smirked and said, "That doesn't mean that you don't have them." His smile widened as the boy became more tense. "I'm not getting on to you for it. Chances are, everyone who came here knew and turned a blind eye as long it didn't affect food production. Generally, we could care less what you lot do in your free time as long as you meet your quota." Bardock shook his head and said, "But even that won't matter anymore."

The boy fell out of his defensive stance but his bright mood didn't come back, "Something's happened, hasn't it? Like when you showed up to clear out the Tuffles and take over here."

"Exactly like that, except we aren't on the winning end this time. Once you've escorted me to my ship, get as many of the hybrids out of here as possible."

Reed turned his head. "Ruler turnover at work."

Bardock glanced at him. "Yes, they'll spare a majority of the people here. This world is rich in food and needs hands to work the fields but you and any hybrids like you will be killed."

"Should we call the other planets?"

Bardock smiled and joked, "Wouldn't my people discovering that you have that capacity result in a mass execution?"

"Maybe you could come with us."

Bardock snorted and said, "I have no interest in throwing my lot in with a bunch of little hybrid brats."

Reed frowned and said, "Oh, alright then, I didn't realize I was a bother..."

"It's not you personally. I just don't have patience with kids in general." He was already cringing at the idea of hunting down and living with one Saiyan runt. The idea of falling in with a whole nest of half-breed ones didn't appeal to him in the least. "You keep up the way you're going. I'm sure you'll grow up into someone I'd consider decent company. You seem to have gotten your saiyan parent's fighting spirit."

Reed seemed to perk back up at that statement, then the mood fell away.

"So my dad's probably dead too, huh?"

Bardock sighed, "Most likely."

"Who did it?"

"Lord Frieza."

"Your employer? But I thought you were happily doing everything he asked?" the boy stated in a shocked tone.

"We did it too well. He came to see us as a threat and went to work removing it."

"Oh. I'm sorry. How did he…"

"Look, I don't really feel like talking about it right now."

Reed fell silent for a moment, then he said, "Turn right and the hangar bay is at the end of the hall. You'll be able to see your pod from the entrance. I'll have the bay doors open."

"You're not going to walk me there?"

"I wanted to be with you to make sure you weren't trying to blow up the planet.  It seemed like a possible reason for an unfamiliar pureblood to show up, even if you were beat up." He pulled a pin off of his shirt. "This is a speaker. The other hybrids on planet flew in and took up positions nearby, just out of scouter range for their levels, just in case. The others will want to talk so we can plan things out and spread the warnings to our kin on the other crop worlds." Then Reed looked down at his feet and said, "Thanks for telling me, though. When you catch up to whoever killed the others and will be hunting us, could you at least get in a few extra punches for us?"

Bardock studied Reed, reconsidering how he had viewed the boy and the other hybrids that must be here by extension as clueless and complacent. He smirked and said, "Sure, but just a couple. Most will be for me and mine."

"A couple's more than we deserve if you beat us to it."

Bardock looked over at the brat and felt his smile grow a little. "Is that a challenge?"

"You started it by thinking we're too weak to keep up with you."

"You are. You're just a half-breed,"

"Try telling us that once we beat you to getting revenge."

"That'll be the day."

The two looked at each other, each wearing determined smiles. Aside from an actual fight, nothing got a Saiyan going like a good competition. Plus, it was good to know that if one attempt ultimately failed, there were others that would try.

He watched as the boy pulled out a box with a plastic antenna sticking out. He noticed a button was being held down. "Hey Fern, did you get all that?" Reed said into it.

"Loud and clear, Reed. We're already gathering the others and sending messages to our guys on the other crop planets."

"How many of you are there?" Bardock asked.

"Across all of the crop worlds? Fourty eight but it’s about to be fifty."

"Oh?"

"There's a set of twins due in a few weeks on Planet Torcta."

Bardock was about to ask for more details about them when he was suddenly swept up into a vision.

_He spun to look beyond a pointed brown beak at the emperor, seated in his floating throne and flanked by Zarbon and Dodoria. Freiza did not look pleased._

Wow, this guy felt weak. Was this how it felt to be a low-level being? It was awful!

_"Lord Frieza, sir!" He saluted the terrifying being. "T-t-to w-what d-do I oh-owe this unprecedented honor?"_

_Frieza smiled and said, "Oh, not much, I just wanted to ask you about a report you catalogued from Planet Vegeta the day before it was destroyed by that awful asteroid shower."_

An ‘asteroid shower?  That’s the best you could come with?  The Saiyans could have easily vaporized anything big enough to do any real damage before it even entered the upper atmosphere! Surely no one would by that load of garbage!

_"Well, I'd be happy to help in any way I can, Lord Frieza,"_

_"Oh, I have no doubt,"_

_"If you can tell me the report, I can pull up the information on it right away,"_

_"Alright, I'd like to see the last medical report for a saiyan named Bardock, specifically the medical review and his teammate's testimonials for the incident."_

_"Of course, Lord Frieza, right away, sir."_ Bardock could sense a growing fear as he stated these words, as if he knew something that spelled out bad things to come for him.

_The scientist pulled them up and read. "Each member of the subject's team reported witnessing a Kanassan native striking him in the back of his head and stating that it had altered his mind to support the special power-laden abilities like their own before they killed it. Judging from their accounts, this same attack is the probable cause of the subject lost consciousness."_

_He looked at the brief medical summary and swallowed.  "The subject's f-fuh-physical health is still at its peak, having settled from the effects from his last Zen Kai Boost a week before the incident. His br-brainwave patterns have been slightly modified… we kept him under anesthesia for days but he woke up of his own volition, despite being exposed to a dose that should have prevented this. He awoke rapidly, as if excited or scared and spoke of strange dreams."_

_"You read this earlier, did you not?"_

_The scientist felt sweat bead on his head as he spun in his chair and stood again. "Yes, well, I heard about Planet Vegeta and the other Saiyans disappearing on missions. So, I figured it wouldn’t be worth wasting your time, sire. Since the Saiyan was probably dead."_

_Frieza stood and floated inches above the ground, leaving behind his floating throne. His tail slowly curled and uncurled behind him as he drew closer. In an instant, his previously calm unreadable features became a dark glare with a light that spoke of a deep madness that scared even Bardock to the core. "I see," he hissed. "So, you figured that you had the authority to decide whether or not to report a possible psychic being to me?"_

_"No, Lord Frieza, please! It wasn't like that. The Saiyans were gone before I read this. I…I…"_

_"Was scared of the repercussions when you reported this information too late?" Frieza sneered. "Well, let me show them to you. Zarbon, take care of him,"_

_"As you command, Lord Frieza,"_

_"No, wait! Please. I can…" There was a flash and a burning agony…_

But the vision didn't end there. Bardock stood beside the corpse of the creature that Zarbon had just killed, unseen by the other occupants of the room.

Lord Frieza turned his glare to Zarbon and Dodoria. "And Cui was sure it was him?"

"Yes my Lord. There's no telling where he is now. Nor the others."

Just as quickly as it came the glare was gone, now a smile spreading across Frieza's face, the type of smile a saiyan might get when they heard that they were assigned a particularly challenging planet.

"Imagine, one of those filthy Saiyan monkeys may have made off with the Kanassans' psychic abilities." He turned to Dodoria, who was trying to hold his composure, despite the fear in his eyes as he watched Frieza in the corner of them. Zarbon had an arrogant smirk, clearly enjoying the sight of his coworker under the gun. "Looks like it might be a good thing that you didn't finish him after all, Dodoria. Would you like to make up for that mistake?"

"Y-yes, Lord Frieza."

"Good, then you can locate and retrieve our rogue monkey, alive. If there really is any chance he's psychic, I want him in hand. As for the others, they have no value to me. Kill any you catch."

Frieza looked at his two men. "We must be discrete about Bardock. If my father or my brother get word of a possible psychic, I probably won't get to keep him, even if it is a Saiyan. It's also the reason I can't involve the Ginyu Force, as they will answer to my father as well as me. Even if he doesn't directly ask for some sort of report, they might just blab in hopes of gaining his favor. Find the Saiyan. And no one beyond this room must know the true reason for his capture. In fact, I want the number of people who know he's alive to stay to an absolute minimum required to subdue and retrieve him. As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, he ceased to exist with the rest of his species when Planet Vegeta was hit by an 'asteroid.' Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Lord Frieza," his men stated.

As Bardock came back to himself, he found himself kneeling. He clenched his fists, trying to still the slight tremble they now had. The mad fire in Frieza's eyes was bad enough, but then seeing his excitement at the thought of obtaining a psychic…of obtaining him, was absolutely horrifying. Frieza was about to chase him across the universe and he had a feeling the lizard would trade multiple planetary systems to have him. If the Saiyan fell into the lizard's grasp, he knew his existence would become an agony beyond imagining.

And he apparently had Frieza's father and a brother to worry about, too. Funny, he was rather certain that the ice lizard had never mentioned his kin, seeing as the Saiyans would have happily taken up the past time of guessing at how strong they must be or actually trying to find out so that they could compare them to Frieza himself. It sounded like if they found out, this could quickly go from bad to worse. It was bad enough to have one ice lizard after him but three was too horrifying to consider.

Bardock became aware of someone shaking his shoulder and asking what was happening. He blinked and looked up to see Reed standing there, shaking his shoulder.

"I'm fine," Bardock stated, pulling away.

"You screamed like you were dying and then just fell silent and stopped moving."

It took him a moment to figure out what could have caused him to scream and then it hit him. The scientist's destruction, it had felt so real, as if he was the one being cooked alive. He must have reacted to it here while he was still under the grip of the vision. The realization that he could react to his visions in such a visceral way and not even realized it was not a comforting one.

"It was nothing." Still, he could contemplate the implications later. There were more pressing matters. Bardock had to get out of  there, now. "Get the launch bay open now. I've got to go. Don't wait after I leave, get out as fast as you can."

Without looking to see how Reed responded, Bardock leaped into the air and rushed forward, following the boy's directions. He rounded the corner to see a long hallway, barely able to make out the door at the far end. Before he could get any further, though, a portion of the hallway was suddenly disintegrated in a yellow blast.

Bardock looked up out of the hole to see Cui, floating beneath a purple sky, surrounded by a few weakling lackeys. Cui? But hadn't Frieza assigned Dodoria…

In the vision. Of the future. A future that hadn't happened yet. Of course not, he'd just had that vision moments ago. No one could react to an order and find him that quickly. Not even Frieza's elite. Furthermore, the others they were talking about must be the hybrid children and there was no way that anyone in Frieza's forces could know about that yet.

Maybe today wasn't as bad as he thought. Maybe he could make it so that what he saw never came to pass. He just had to kill Cui and his men. They'd never be able to tell Frieza who killed them and he might never start digging for information. The ice lizard would continue on with business as usual, completely clueless of Bardock's new 'gift.'

But the question was, how? Whatever it was, it had better be painful. After all, even if Cui didn't do the deed, he'd been assigned to kill Raditz. He stood and watched as the boy's team was annihilated. This cowardly worm deserved to suffer.

As Bardock clenched his fists so tightly that his nails might very well be digging into the flesh of his hands and drawing blood, he vowed that he'd be the bringer of that pain.

He flew forth to meet his enemies head-on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is curious about Bardock’s visions about Goku, they are all from various episodes of the Dragon Ball Series The first one described occurs in the Red Ribbon Saga. As far as where in the overall Dragon Ball series in relation to episodes number it is, you can find it somewhere in the early 50s. Goku is in an undersea cavern, eating a gigantic octopus that had planned to eat him. The whole set of undersea caverns were threatening to collapse. 
> 
> The head cannon I have for Bardock having so many visions about his youngest son is two fold. The first is that a side effect of the power transfer that the kanassan gave Bardock is that it sharpened his natural telepathic connections, especially with nearby kin, which was only Kakarot at the time. If Raditz had been nearby, he might have been included. The other is that the Kanassan was forcing Bardock to see his future personal and heritage. Now that Bardock is no longer in close proximity to Kakarot and his psychic connection isn’t as powerful over the distance, he can have similar visions about both of his sons, rather than just Kakarot.
> 
> I am assuming, based off of the fact that Raditz said that Planet Vegeta was lost three years before he came to earth that a year on planet Vegeta is different than a Earth year. I am going to say a saiyan year is about seven earth years (unless I happen to find something to give me a more solid number), which would place Raditz’s arrival on Earth about three and a half years after their planet’s destruction. If I made a mention of time in chapter one that contradicts this model, I will have corrected it by the time this chapter was put up.
> 
> On top of Bardock not being aware that Frieza saw him leave planet Meat and head back for Planet Vegeta in the show, it’s very likely with his delayed exit, that Frieza might not have noticed this time. I would assume in such a case, checking and retrieving a bunch of pods would be of rather low priority in the grand scheme of things as Frieza covered up the mass genocide he just committed. So, it would be possible that Bardock would have a few days before anyone realized someone had survived Dodoria’s attack. I am going under the assumption that this is what happened for the sake of my story and address that particular potential plot hole.
> 
> Reed would be about physical age equivalent to Gohan at the time he was fighting Cell. I chose the name Reed because it represents a wild plant that, while not conventionally treated like a vegetable in stores, several parts of many species of the plant are edible. (I know that the show is not usually so obvious with their references, these seemed like legitimately good names and I plan to try for mre subtlety in the future).
> 
> I also stuck with the play on words for the names of people and places throughout the chapter. Some fern fiddleheads are also edible. I see them in the grocery store sometimes. Torwal and Torcta are plays on the words Trowel and Tractor respectively, both can be used in farming.
> 
> Also, I don’t expect this portion of the story, which is focused on the time just after Bardock escapes the destruction of Planet Vegeta, to extend past chapter four or five. After that, I plan on getting more into DB/DBZ cross over territory and start bringing Goku into the story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bardock fights Cui

Bardock ignored the first stages of panic seizing the people below. If they were smart they'd either run for cover or get out of there, because once the fighting started neither he nor Frieza's men would hold back their punches for the sake of weaklings.

People were going to die. That was a given. It was also a fact that Bardock was used to from his experience as a career apocalypse bringer. The only reason he cared enough to think of it at all was that these people belonged to the Saiyans. Officially, they were for food production, but they probably did a lot more than that in secret, if what Reed had said was anything to go by.

But there was really nothing he could do for the weaklings below. The Frieza Force had found them. They would, at the very least, probably survive as a species, providing food for Frieza's men. It was more than most could hope for and certainly more than their previous two ruling species got.

Bardock banished the thoughts from his mind as he turned his focus on Cui and the lackeys he'd brought with him. There were three of them: A large crocodilian of some sort, a gray Pule, with light blue spots running along it’s elongated head and a Sapien creature with speckled gray and black hair cropped within an inch of his head.

Bardock examined the armor that they wore, noting with distaste how Cui actually wore the flexible fabric made from a plant that King Vegeta had given samples of it to Lord Frieza as a gift when he first found them in order to show his loyalty.  For the Saiyans it had provided a material strong enough not only to last in battle but through multiple Oozaru transformations.  Among Frieza’s ranks, it probably made a nice one size fits all uniform. Looking back, this gift had probably actually been their king’s way of begging for his mercy. It was given alongside a fruit that produced a juice with healing properties, rumored to be a key ingredient in the new advanced version of the rejuvenation chamber fluid.

Clearly, the Frieza Force was breeding both plants successfully, somewhere. He wondered how long it would be until the material was available to lower ranking members of Frieza's army. The lizard had truly taken everything that the Saiyans had to offer before tossing them aside like trash. He burned them away like it, too.

The thought filled Bardock with rage as he stared at the soldiers before him. Cui's laughter as Bardock flew up to meet him and his posse only angered the Saiyan more.

"Well, well," Cui stated.  "What do we have here? Bardock, head of the team assigned to Planet Meat. I see you managed to survive but we'll soon correct that. And level 12,000. Not bad for a monkey."

Bardock clenched his fists at the blatant use of the racial slur Frieza's men had been so fond of whispering behind the Saiyans' backs but didn’t let the anger show on his face.  Instead he replied, “Please, Cui, the only time you can correct anything is when you're proofreading documents behind your desk. Speaking of which, you must be lost. I mean, there is a difference between a training room and a battlefield. You do know that in order to hide from danger, you're supposed to avoid drawing attention to yourself, right? Mind you, I guess I can understand the confusion since you are a bit lacking in any real battle experience. Are you still holding steady at about 15,000? Or have you actually applied yourself for once?"

Cui sneered. "Ah, you Saiyans, always so spirited. And you all seem to think you have such a great sense of humor." His faux jovial tone shifted and became much darker as he added, "It's a real pity Frieza wanted to keep a few of you. I would have loved to see how he would’ve killed that little imp of a prince. Oh well, guess I'll just have to settle for finishing off a third-class waste of space myself, instead,"

"Where's Dodoria? Last I checked it was because of his sloppiness that I survived. I'd like to give him a proper thank you." In the form of a blast to the face…followed by ripping the pink blob's fatty throat out.

"He had far more important matters than one measly monkey that Frieza wants eliminated, so they sent me to take care of you instead. Don't worry, even after you die today you'll get another opportunity to get under his skin, since I'll be reminding him how I succeeded where he failed."

Cui's words made Bardock livid. It was bad enough that he kept on with the 'monkey' bit but to just dismiss the possibility that he could even be a threat was of the highest insult.  "Gee, how thoughtful. But if he couldn't kill me, what makes you think that you can do any better?"

"As you just stated, the only reason you lived is because he was careless. I assure you that I won't be. But, if you stand still, I promise to make it quick!"

Cui's team all laughed at the pronouncement.

Bardock looked at the men and stated, "I can understand why Cui might be confident, but you lot? You look weaker than Dodoria's team and I killed all of them by myself before Dodoria attacked me. You're the fodder." To demonstrate, he fired a shot directly at Cui, who dodged it, by ducking out of the way.

But Bardock's target had actually been the Pule, who was directly behind him, probably hoping that hiding behind his boss would guarantee his safety.

Instead, he was the first to die as Bardock's shot struck home, instantly killing him.

Bardock didn't wait to see this, as his attention was now on Cui, who had dived to dodge the blast, giving the Saiyan a height advantage that he refused to let go to waste. He dive-bombed the stupid purple worm, charging his hands with Ki as he raised them together and slammed them down, intending to bring the power down directly onto Cui's head. It was a blow that could either kill him or permanently incapacitate him, despite the level gap between them.

But Cui dodged to the side just in time. Bardock's hands scraped against the left side of his face, shattering the scouter's lens before coming down instead on his shoulder. Cui let out a shriek of agony as something in his shoulder gave.

Despite the satisfaction that causing pain and removing Cui's scouter brought Bardock, he was pissed off about missing his mark. The chances of Cui falling for something like that again were slim at best. Still, crippling one of his arms at the start of the fight could give the Saiyan the advantage he needed to make up for the few thousand point power level gap that was between them. He would take anything he could get.

A quick glance revealed that Cui's remaining men were still floating like useless balloons as they recovered from their shock, the pieces of the Pule only beginning to succumb to the effects of gravity and fall out of the smoke cloud created by Bardock’s Ki blast.

Bardock quickly tried to press his advantage before Cui could recover from the blow.  His men, however, seemed to recall that they were actually supposed to engage him in battle and stopped drifting uselessly in favor of actually attacking Bardock; causing him to have to block their relatively weak blows.  As Cui tried to pull back, Bardock released a wave of energy, pushing his men away so he could rush forward.  The Saiyan refused to give him the space to recover.

Despite the fact that the men fell back as Bardock closed that gap, their attack had stressed an important fact about this fight.  As things stood, he was horribly outmatched.  Taking out the first man and Crippling Cui was a good start but it wasn’t enough to level the playing field. Even if Cui had been closer to his level, his men would be a threat while he focused on their leader, despite being weaklings.

Bardock aimed a blow at the side of Cui's neck, intending to crush his throat. He hoped the blow would prove to be fatal, which it usually was for bipedal species, serving as a method for cutting off their breathing, blood flow, nerves or any combination of the above.

Unfortunately, Cui managed to block this last attack by raising his arm. He took advantage of the opening that the Saiyan had left by aiming a swift kick to his chest. Bardock felt his own ribs crack from the blow as Cui leaped away.

Almost instinctively, Bardock shot a Ki blast, using it’s momentum to propel himself backward, just in time to miss Cui's Ki blast and his men's lasers passing where he had just been.

"Fools. How could you both miss? He was right there!" Then the blast from Cui attack struck a high rise building somewhere behind Bardock and exploded, releasing a blinding flash and a deafening roar, soon followed by a gust of wind against his back.

Bardock had to bite his tongue to keep from pointing out that Cui had missed too. He also noted that if it had been his team against a lone opponent, they would have scattered the shots enough that, if their foe had dodged one blast, they'd be right in the way of another. Frieza's elites were remarkably disappointing. He recalled some of the jokes he'd heard over the radio about how the teams had approached the Saiyans in a friendly manner and they'd bought it right up until the bastards had blown their heads off. It was a grim reminder of how the element of surprise could make all the difference, regardless of skill. 

It’s probably how his own team had been taken down so efficiently.

Bardock took advantage of the confusion the botched blast provided to leap at the nearest of Cui's men, the Sapien-looking individual, but before he could land a blow to his head, the man lifted his arm in defense. Only this block wasn't nearly as effective as Cui's. He felt the man's forearm snap from the force of his blow and his fist kept going, contacting his head. The blow wasn't fatal but he was pretty sure that it caused a concussion.

Even before recovering from the strike, the man was instinctively raising his laser gun and pulling the trigger, so Bardock spun around behind him, pulling the mangled limb with him as he lifted his free hand against the man's back and released another Ki blast, which passed right through his chest.

'Two down,' Bardock thought with a smile.

Bardock jumped away from the fresh corpse just in time to dodge another Ki blast from Cui and a laser shot from his last man.

Bardock smirked as he saw a trail of blue blood trickling out of Cui's mouth as his left arm hung limply to his side. Hopefully, he'd done enough to level the playing field. Soon he'd find out, but first, he had to take care of the last guy.

Bardock shot a barrage of blasts of varying speeds at Cui, making them deceptively bright. It gave them the illusion of appearing to be much more powerful than they really were. Cui easily began to dodge them, the blasts flying onwards into a distant set of mountains beyond the city. Regardless of the ease with which Cui avoided them, though, Bardock was sure that they would keep him occupied. He was extremely fast and strong but clearly out of practice, just as was rumored.

If Cui hadn't been so clueless to the ways of battle, he might have caught on to the real purpose of the Saiyan's current attack. He might have caught on to the fact that he wasn't Bardock's real target.

The Saiyan glanced at the crocodilian and had to fight the urge to smirk as the moronic weakling stared on with awe at his power display, and Cui's seemingly impossible speed, completely fascinated and terrified by the sight. He was completely distracted by it. What a bunch of armatures.

Amidst the barrage of blasts, Bardock fired a more powerful shot at the crocodilian soldier. The blast struck home without his target ever knowing what had happened, so entranced by the flashy display the Saiyan had been putting on to distract both him and Cui.

He stopped firing at Cui, so as not to waste energy. The two watched as the body of Cui's last man fell to the ground, landing with an audible thump on a pile of rubble that used to a building before the fight had started.

"Your men were a disappointing lot," Bardock taunted.

Cui frowned at the statement and retorted, "It's not my problem. They’ll give me another set if I get mission like this, again. Grunts are easily replaced."

"You'll have to make it out alive in order to get another mission, Cui."

Cui snorted. "Please, even like this, I can take you easily. You just got in a lucky shot,"

"Really? Honestly, I'm starting to worry that you won't be able to give me a real fight before I kill you. And for someone who has about three thousand on me, that's pretty sad. You even had help, Cui. Three men! I should be dead, but look at me; I’ve disposed of all of them and put you down one arm, yet all I've got are a few cracked ribs. Show me that fearsome power Frieza's men are known for, Cui! Give me a real fight!" Bardock demanded.  He felt a fierce smile on his face, built on adrenaline and anticipation for this battle.

Cui released a roar of fury and shot a large one-handed blast that Bardock easily dodged, allowing it to shoot off into the distance behind him. He dove into the rising smoke and dust, a combination of material kicked up from previous blasts and fires that had started up from the city below and were rapidly spreading.

There was a sonic boom above and then behind him, a result of someone who wasted their energy forcing their way through the air, rather than use their Ki to push it out of the way to ease their movements.  At the speeds that they moved to fight, the air actually made a difference in the speed and energy placed into every motion.   The only advantage it provided was that they were also moving so fast that, by the time the sound reached another person’s ear, the person making it was in a different location and the sound acted as a distraction.   

Unfortunately, the distraction was enough to draw Bardock’s eye and before he could correct his mistake, he felt a fist slam into his lower back on his right side, right against his kidney. He just had time to gasp at the pain when a Ki blast sent him crashing into the ground beneath an explosion.

Everything burned; the spot where Cui had just hit him in his lower back was complete agony. He lay prone, his tail partially unfurled from his waist and the tip of it beneath him as he lay face down.

Remembering that Cui didn't have a scouter, Bardock laid still, careful to not so much as twitch his tail as he used his other senses to follow his opponent's approach. He hoped the act, face down and tail prone, would be enough to fool the other being into believing that he was unconscious or dead. He had no doubt that the idiot would want to close in and get a few last digs in before finishing him.

Cui didn't disappoint. "How's that? Enough fight for you? You weren't nearly as tough as you thought, were you, filthy monkey trash?" He began to laugh aloud.

Bardock sensed the kick Cui aimed at his side and whipped his tail out to hook his leg and pulled it up, throwing the other warrior off balance. As Bardock did this, he spun up and drove a fist into Cui's gut, hoping once again to hit something vital. He then drove the freak into the ground with that hand still in a tight fist as he swung his tail out behind him, out of reach.

Bardock then proceeded to pummel his foe, landing blow after blow. He saw a blast charging from Cui’s only usable arm and slammed on the limb. Any attempt from Cui to jump to his feet was met with an elbow or kick to his legs. The Saiyan aimed punches wherever an opening presented itself, keeping Cui in his prone position as he wore the man down.

Meanwhile, Bardock kept his tail up in the air, away from Cui's reach, as the motions for him to wrap it back around his waist would put it in a vulnerable position. And oh did it feel good to let it wave freely, acting as a counterbalance while he weaved and whirled above Cui. Motions that would have usually caused him to lose his footing were easily self-corrected as it moved counter to him. The tail may have been a Saiyan's weak point but, even without a full moon, it was also one of their biggest strengths. It was always with regret that children first learned to keep it wrapped where it was most useless, resisting the temptation to take the risk and fight to their fullest potential. And at that moment, since the Saiyan couldn't tuck it safely around his waist, he would happily use it to his full advantage.

Bardock could feel bones breaking. He felt splashes of his opponent's blood as it covered him in blue and filled his nostrils with a metallic scent which only encouraged him to push his attack even harder. Cui was soon helpless beneath him, curled up defensively and unable to get away.

He heard Cui beg for him to stop but quickly tuned it out. He knew better. The moment he let up, the man would turn on him again. To let up now would be either Bardock's death or of his vision coming to pass. Cui had to die.

The Saiyan aimed at another opening he'd spotted but at that moment _, his surroundings suddenly shifted.  Cui was no longer under him…_

_In fact, he was no longer even on the ground focusing on a target beneath him but floating in the air, looking around._

_His body felt off, everything was wrong_.  _It felt like_ …oh shit, he was having a vision? Now?!

_He, whoever he was, was scared.  He could sense his opponents' power levels and was using it to track them. There were a few closings in and if they found him, he wouldn't stand a chance. He lowered his own power level even further in hopes of hiding from…_

Bardock was brought back to awareness by the horrifying feeling of every muscle in his body throbbing in beat with his heart as they all went slack. At the same time, all of his senses were on high alert. He was seized by a wave of vertigo so terrible that he had to fight the urge to throw up. The ground rushed up to meet him and he met it with a thump. In the distance, he could see the remains of the city. Skyscrapers were half destroyed, steel bars and wires reaching up like twisted fingers on broken hands toward the smoky sky. The shimmering glow of fire reflected off the surface shattered glass, blown out of buildings by blast waves and resembling glitter. He could hear the distant screams of civilians; scared, pained or dying. With the echoes of the vision, he could actually sense their life forces like one disorganized sea of chaos.  Still, they were nothing compared to Cui's burning roiling well of energy behind him that was Qui as he held Bardock's tail in a death grip.

"Wow! Your tails really are weak! Next time I have to curb your brat prince's attitude, I know exactly what to do now!"

Bardock let out a wordless snarl which quickly turned into a wail of agony as Cui slammed his foot down on the Saiyan's tail hard enough to crack the ground beneath. As Cui ground his foot, the Saiyan was in too much pain to even draw a breath to scream again, hands attempting to claw at the land beneath him, but fingers not even possessing the strength to make groves in the dirt.

Cui laughed, ending in a coughing fit. He spat out a translucent splash of spittle on the ground, the fluid tinged blue with blood.  "I'm going to take this nice and slow, Bardock. You're going to pay for what you did to me. And when I've finished breaking your body, I'm going to pull off this tail that you love oh so very much and use it to strangle you!"

Bardock ground his teeth as the grip on his tail tightened and Cui wrapped a loop of it around his hand, pulling it tight as he took a step closer to Bardock's side.

Bardock turned his head to see the purple monster sneering down at him, tail held firmly in his good hand as the other hung limply. Cui dragged his leg as he positioned himself beside Bardock’s prone form. Blue blood ran in rivulets from several cuts all over his body. One eye was swollen shut. He looked like some dead thing that had risen from the grave to take its vengeance.

Bardock glared at the creature hatefully, wishing he could gut him here and now but instead he was stuck there on the ground, lying prone before him.

Cui smiled at him and lifted his foot over his side. Bardock braced himself for the first of what would be many terrible blows. Cui stomped, breaking bones. Then again and a third time.

Bardock felt the pain from the blows and tasted the blood in his mouth. But there was nothing Bardock could do. He couldn't move. Nothing would respond while his tail was being squeezed. Cui would easily beat him to death without him so much as lifting a hand to stop it.

Still, Bardock clamped his teeth together. If he was going to die like this, he wouldn't make a sound. If this was how he died, he would do so with as much dignity as he could. He certainly didn't intend to give Cui the satisfaction of hearing him beg for mercy.

Then from behind Cui, a tiny blur flew from a pile of rubble and bit into Cui's injured shoulder. A striped tail stood erect in the air as the hands now on Cui's neck and shoulder glowed where they met Cui's skin, releasing Ki blasts. The kid! Reed!

Cui released Bardock's tail as he instinctively threw a fist at his attacker. It was a level fifteen thousand warrior punching a level two hundred child. The result was inevitable. Bardock, tail free, spun to stop what was about to happen, but was too slow.

Cui's fist met the flesh of Reed's side and the boy crumpled around it, a spurt of red blood coming out of his mouth before he was sent flying from the force of the blow. Bardock hadn't even gotten his feet under him before it was over. In the blink of an eye, the small form was quickly swallowed up by the smoke. The only evidence that he had been there at all was the still falling blood droplets he'd left behind.

Cui must have realized his mistake because he spun back toward Bardock with a wide panicked eye, but it was already too late. The Saiyan was already plowing into him and sending him flying several feet into a cloud of smoke.

Cui quickly moved away from where he landed but Bardock didn't need to see him. Thanks to that vision that had nearly cost him his life, he could now sense his energy, the feeling of being able to do it easy to recall and imitate. He couldn't do it well, especially compared to whoever he was sensing it through earlier, but he didn't need to be good at it. Cui was too powerful to miss.

The Saiyan kept up his assault, staying close to Cui as he landed punch after Ki-tempered punch, trying to do as much damage as he could without giving his opponent a chance to react beyond blocking him. But now, after the damage he had taken because he'd been forced to let his guard down during his vision, he was more hurt than he had been. Every breath was a burning agony and he suspected there was damage that went beyond busted ribs. He had lost whatever edge he'd had on the other warrior. If he didn't do something quick, he would lose.

Suddenly, Bardock recalled another vision he'd had in his fight with Dodoria's men. If he could pull it off, he would easily destroy Cui.

Desperate, Bardock recalled everything he could from the vision he had in his last fight. The power, the way it had flowed through him…except it wasn't him. He'd never actually done any of it. He'd just rode the experience until he'd taken a blow to the face, snapping him back to reality. Could he actually pull it off?

What if it didn't work? Then he would fight to the death and join his people wherever they went afterward. He took a deep breath and summoned the attack, trying to force his body to take on the state he had felt through Kakarot. And that the vision had been of his youngest, he was now somehow sure.

He would be using his son's future move in order to save his skin. It seemed like cheating, as did this energy sensing thing he was now doing to keep track of Cui but he was out of options. If he wanted to live, he needed to take every advantage he could get.

Silently apologizing to Kakarot for trying to steal a move the boy hadn't even learned yet, Bardock drew on the energy within him. He tried to make it imitate what he had experienced as his mind was sandwiched between two battles taking place at two different times...

"Kaio K…" Bardock never finished the sentence as the power, focused in his vision, came forth as an uncontrollable explosion of force, tearing painfully through his body as it exploded outward.

When next Bardock became aware of his surroundings, he was lying at the bottom of a crater, his muscles screaming in agony, his heart beating erratically and everything else feeling wrong. He pushed himself up with trembling arms, biting back any expression of the searing pain he felt as he shakily rose to his feet. Every muscle in his body, every fiber of his very being, felt like it was on fire.

Bardock wasn’t sure how long he had blacked out for but he suspected it was a very short time. For, at the edge of the crater, struggling to rise from a trench his body had made several yards beyond the borders of the explosion, was Cui, breathing heavily as he clutched the limp arm, now badly broken and raw, as if he had landed on it. The one holding it was in only slightly better condition; the skin on the top was black from a burn rather than its natural purple. Anywhere on the right side of his body that wasn't protected by the armor he wore was badly burned, including his face. He was probably only unaware of the pain he felt because of the high that comes with battle.

Despite Bardock's own condition, he smirked and floated a foot into the air.

"You're going to pay for touching my tail!"

Cui looked up, and took a step back, "How? How could you do that attack? It had to have a power level far greater than your current one! It should be impossible!"

Bardock chuckled and said, "Clearly, it's not." His body was about shot and the attack had not gone well for him, although Cui had no way to know how badly he'd botched it. From what he recalled of his vision, the attack should have been both stronger and more controlled than that.  It certainly shouldn’t have just exploded from him the way it had.

Bardock raised his hand, prepared to summon his Ki for a blast, although he wasn't even sure he had enough energy left even for that. He had to finish this fight or die trying. There was no way he was going to let word of his survival get back to…

At the sight of his energy gathering stance, instead of charging to meet him or retaliating with a blast of his own, Cui instead darted into a plume of smoke.

Startled, Bardock lost his concentration and what little energy he had dissipated. Too tired to use that energy sensing technique that he barely had a grasp one, Bardock leaped up to fly after Cui.

Instead, he crashed to the ground. He was too drained to fly.

He braced himself for Cui's counterattack. He wouldn't survive the hit. He doubted that he could even deflect something as weak as a bullet, let alone a laser weapon or a Ki blast.

But the attack never came. At that moment, a breeze blew through and the smoke was momentarily blown out of the way. In the distance, he saw a tiny purple speck.

For a moment, Bardock just stared, shocked. Somehow, the idea that one of Frieza's high ranking soldiers would run away had never crossed his mind. Retreat was almost considered taboo in the Saiyan culture, where the line was thin for even caution and cowardice.

The disbelief only lasted for a moment before he began to laugh at the grim irony. Cui could've killed him! If he'd stayed even half a second longer, he would have known that, too. Now because of his cowardice, Bardock would live but Frieza would suspect his new secret.

He was brought out of his thoughts as something caught his eye.

It was Reed. He was lying unmoving, half buried beneath the crumbled wall of a building.

Bardock glanced back at Cui, or at least where he had been, as he was now out of sight. He'd lost his opportunity to finish the bastard, which meant that he'd not only failed to get a measure of revenge for his son but that Frieza would soon be investigating him and his vision would come to pass.

Still, Bardock silently promised that this wasn't over. They would pay for what they'd done to the Saiyans, Frieza and every last one of his men.

But for now, the fight was done. He'd won the battle only by default and failed in the only thing he'd wanted to do. Failed again!

And once again, his failure had come with a cost.

Bardock sighed and stumbled toward the unmoving form of the Demi-Saiyan who'd saved his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fight is probably the thing in this story I've been least looking forward to working on. For a while, I absolutely hated working on it. The majority of my time working on it has been one writer's block after another until I had my breakthrough but I was determined to make it work. Hopefully you enjoyed it.
> 
> It was also much darker and more violent than most of my writing and will probably cause me to bump up my rating some for this story. I felt it had to be of this nature. Although I won't promise that this will be the last chapter of a dark, violent quality, I will say that they should be few and far between.
> 
> A head canon I've developed for how Saiyans come to view the universe is in only terms of their immediate surroundings and people who actually are somehow involved in their lives. While they might have strong bonds with friends, a deep level of respect and competitiveness with rival and hatred for enemies, if a person has not interacted with them, they might as well not exist. It would explain how they can disconnect themselves from the emotional toll of their jobs so well, despite being capable of such deep emotional bonds.
> 
> It also explains a lot of Goku's own behaviors. One incident that stands out occurred after Goku killed King Piccolo. Despite thousands of people being killed, Goku expressed his interest only in restoring his friends, expressing no interest in anyone else. Yet, despite such views, he could still ride the flying nimbus. So, my thoughts are that rather than not caring, the other people simply didn't cross his mind because he never interacted with them.
> 
> I am going to assume that the upper class Saiyans hid the fact that they could train their tails to be strong and instead pretended that it was inherited, like their great control over their Oozaru Form. It would explain why Raditz never trained his tail to be stronger the way that Goku did.
> 
> Also, I’d come up with a much broader description of the plant used for the Saiyan Uniform and the plant used to make it. It was meant to give a little more Saiyan history. I was told it was a little much for the readers, so I cut most of the paragraph as I don’t believe in forcing in more exposition at the sacrifice of quality. I put the original, uncut paragraph here for anyone who’s interested in reading:   
> Bardock examined the armor that they wore, noting with distaste how Cui actually wore the flexible fabric made of the fine threads woven from the bolls of a hardy plant originally found only on Sadala, the original Saiyan home world. The fibers could be woven into fabric that could withstand not only the wear and tear of the Saiyans constant fighting but even hold together and retain its elasticity through multiple Oozaru transformations. It had been carried across the


End file.
